The Next Contestant
by eglantine16
Summary: Vampire Edward can't stay away from gorgeous human waitress Bella. On hiatus.
1. Part 1

**The Next Contestant**

_Vampire Edward can't stay away from gorgeous human waitress Bella. _

* * *

**Part 1**

**A/N:** This takes place in Seattle, and is sort of canon. The Cullens and Bella never went to Forks High together, but they are vampires, and she is a human, etc. etc. etc. The song "The Next Contestant" belongs to Nickelback, and Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer. I own nothing except for Edward's dirty thoughts/tortured mind, Bella's cute outfit, and the nightclub Eclipse. Hugs and kisses to my beta, Misty!

Playlist: "The Next Contestant" by Nickelback; "Starstruck" by Lady Gaga; "Blame It" by Jamie Foxx; "Crazy Possessive" by Kaci Battaglia; "Love Don't Let Me Go" by David Guetta

* * *

**EPOV**

"_I judge by what she's wearing__  
__Just how many heads I'm tearing__  
__Off of assholes coming on to her;__  
__Each night seems like it's getting worse.__  
__And I wish she'd take the night off__  
__So I don't have to fight off__  
__Every asshole coming on to her;__  
__It happens every night she works."_

---

The music is so loud and obnoxious, the thoughts of those around me so lewd and atrocious, that I almost wonder why I'm here. Except that I don't…or I can't, rather. I know exactly why I'm here, every Saturday night. I don't have a choice.

"Man, it's getting late, Eddie," Emmett's voice broke into my thoughts. _You think she's going to show?_

"She will," I answered the question in his mind aloud.

"But don't you ever wonder what would happen if you'd stop stalking her, and just talk to her? Maybe get her to wait this table?" Jasper added as Alice folded herself onto his lap. His thoughts quickly abandoned the conversation, and turned to other activities. I gritted my teeth. Unfortunately, it never got easier to hear the sexual thoughts of my siblings, especially when they were directed towards each other.

I remained stubbornly silent, although Alice, Emmett, and Rosalie were still listening. This was a conversation that we'd had on more than one occasion, and yet they never tired of hearing my reasoning. Emmett, for one, thought it madly hilarious. Rosalie liked to hear because she was envious and always imagined herself as being the person in question. Jasper was curious, as always, and Alice…well, Alice liked to hear because she was fascinated with the situation, and because she was the one closest to me.

Seeing that I was done talking, Rose rolled her eyes, and stood up.

"Come on, baby," she cooed at Emmett, extending her hand.

Emmett laughed as Rosalie tugged him out of our dark corner, and into the flashing lights on the dance floor. He always acted as though he didn't want to dance, but having the advantage of reading his mind, I knew full well that he enjoyed nothing more than being with her in public.

_Damn...look at those two! _I followed the mental voice of a girl who was dancing near the front door with her date. _They're so hot! Fuck, I wish Greg looked like __**him**_.

Little did she know that her Greg was thinking the same thing about her and Rose.

A new song came on, some Lady Gaga nonsense, and the crowd got more riled up. Jasper stiffened in his chair at the new onslaught of emotions (most of them probably lust) that permeated the room. The club was small, but terribly popular, and Jasper always had a little more trouble here than anywhere else.

That was how I convinced him to come with us every Saturday. Yes, he was curious about what was going on inside my head, but I'd taken it a step further and told him how much good practice it would be, having to resist a dark, crowded room of lustful humans whose blood was pumped up from the music and the dancing and the alcohol. It actually worked, too. Since coming here, it had been easier for him to keep his thirst under control at school.

Alice and Rose were the easiest to convince. They loved to dance, and they loved to be the center of attention, so it worked out perfectly, since all eyes were on them every time we ventured here.

Emmett followed Rose readily. No problems there.

So why was I here? I didn't need to practice restraining my bloodlust. I never danced; not to this kind of music, anyway. I didn't have a mate to follow. No, I was here for _her_.

Bella Swan. I came to Club Eclipse in Seattle every Saturday night for a human girl named Bella Swan, whom I'd never even spoken too. The first time I'd seen her had been when Alice had taken everyone out for a night of fun, almost six months ago. She and Rose had just bought an entire new wardrobe, and wanted desperately to show off their clubbing outfits, while Emmett had dared me and Jasper to a drinking contest. Jasper could never keep any human food down for longer than a minute, but he somehow managed to stomach alcohol for hours at a time. Emmett was constantly trying to beat Jasper's record, and I somehow got dragged into it.

I'd been trying to choke down some whiskey when it happened. The most beautiful scent I'd ever beheld attacked my senses, leaving me drunker than any human could ever have gotten on any kind of liquor. My eyes had roved the room frantically, my mind probing those around me, searching for the source of the fragrance. A movement at the table closest to ours caught my eye, and venom had pooled in my mouth when I saw her. Not only did she smell delicious, but she was the most gorgeous creature I'd ever seen. Long, cascading brown hair, big chocolate-colored eyes, and the face of an angel belonged to this girl. Swallowing back the venom, I'd tried to block out the thoughts of the people she was standing in front of, so that I could hear her voice. It was as sweet as her scent, and I realized that she was taking orders.

_She's a waitress_? The idea had seemed so blasphemous. How could anyone this beautiful wait tables at a busy club for a living? I listened more closely to hear her thoughts. The monster in me wanted nothing more than to lure her outside and suck her dry. When was she going to go on her break? Maybe I could get her out into the alley...

But I quickly realized that I wasn't getting anything from her. No thoughts. Nothing. All vampiric instincts had gone out the window as I frowned in concentration. Her speech sounded intellectual enough. Surely she was thinking something...

The fact that I could hear everyone's thoughts except for hers had me obsessed from that point on. I listened in on the people she worked with in order to learn everything that I could about this devastatingly beautiful, albeit strange, girl. In one night alone, I'd learned her name, where she lived, that she had a cat named Captain Hook, and that she only worked Eclipse on Saturday nights.

And that's how it started. Every Saturday night for six months, and I still hadn't worked up the courage to talk to her.

Because I really did want to talk to her. What had started out as simply trying to get into her head had morphed into something far bigger, and far more dangerous. I wanted to get to know this girl. Eavesdropping on her conversations and listening to the thoughts of her coworkers wasn't enough. I wanted to have a real conversation with Bella, and..._and then what_? It's not like I could expect to start a relationship with this smart, funny, and incredibly sexy woman. She was human. I was a vampire. That was that. So I settled for simply watching her every chance I got.

Then it got deeper. I started broadening my range of eavesdropping in regards to her. At first, I'd blocked out almost everyone, trying to focus on what the other waitresses were thinking and saying. Tiring of that, I'd started to let other customer's thoughts back in, and was shocked at what I found. The perverted mother-fuckers wanted her just as much as I did, but for entirely different reasons. It had reached the point where I was mentally murdering each and every one of the men that flirted with her. The list was endless.

This girl was going to be the death of me…

Speak of the devil.

I came back to the present. Even though she entered the club through the back door, I picked up on her scent immediately, so attuned was I to her already. I couldn't see her yet; and even though with my heightened senses I knew full well that she was putting her things away in the back room, I straightened up.

I could hear her every breath in her lungs, every beat of her heart. By the rustling against her skin, I could tell more or less what she was wearing, and I clenched my jaw in anticipation.

There she was. As she stepped through the beaded door curtain behind the bar, Mike the bartender turned his full attention on her. His voice was cordial in greeting, but his thoughts were another matter entirely.

_Damn, Bella…she's killing me tonight! Ugh, I wish she would just notice me already. What does a guy have to do to get a date with her? I'll probably have to settle for Lauren. _His eyes and thoughts wandered to another waitress, Lauren, who was at the moment getting beers for the table nearest to ours.

That was another thing: somehow, Lauren always managed to snag our side of the club before Bella or Jessica, the other waitress. It was a blessing in disguise, I concluded, because who knew how I would react if Bella got too close.

"You're late," Jessica said accusingly as she shoved a tray at Bella. "I've been watching your tables for half an hour!"

"Sorry Jess," Bella apologized. "Car trouble."

"Martinis for table four, one dry, and three sex-on-the-beaches for table six. Go!" Jessica all but shoved her out from behind the counter.

I let my eyes linger on her, drinking in the details before they were sullied and polluted by the thoughts of the rowdy club-goers. She was wearing a tight, off-the-shoulder black shirt, accented with a tiny, form-fitting grey halter vest. The vest snuggled up right under her bust, pushing her breasts up and out. She was by no means well endowed, but by the looks of things, they were firm and perky and—_stop it!_

I pinched the bridge of my nose, and Jasper looked at me knowingly. Ignoring his and Alice's smirks, I glanced back Bella. Artfully torn jeans dark jeans, and black ballet flats completed tonight's outfit. I couldn't help but smile at the latter. Bella's unhealthy lack of good balance was something that I had noticed from the beginning. While the other waitresses wore four-inch monstrosities, she always opted for safer footwear. Even then, it was amazing that she'd kept her job for so long. I'd witnessed several close calls where her tray almost went crashing to the floor, or where she almost tripped over a chair leg—or even a person. And I had been privileged enough to see her bump into employee, employer, customer, and door on a fairly regular basis.

_Fuck, check out that hot bitch! I wonder if she's the kind of girl who goes home with customers._

_Yes, she came! Wow, check out that vest. I wonder what her tits look like. _

_Hot damn…it's that waitress again. I bet those pink pouty lips would look amazing wrapped around my—_

I groaned in distress, fighting back the growls that jumped to my throat. It was going to be a long night.

---

"_They'll go and ask the DJ,__  
__Find out just what would she say__  
__If they all tried coming on to her;__  
__Don't they know it's never going to work?__  
__They think they'll get inside her__  
__With every drink they buy her__  
__As they all try coming on to her.__  
__This time somebody's getting hurt:_

_Here comes the next contestant."_

_

* * *

_

**BPOV**

Even though my mind really should have been focused on making it to table four without tripping, all I could seem to think about was feeling his eyes on me.

Being as clumsy as I am, I was used to the constant staring. Granted, it had grown ten-fold since working at Eclipse, but it was something that I could more or less ignore. Drunk guys were always trying to pick me up, buy me a margarita, or get me to dance. I think they only noticed me due to my lack of coordination. Because, really, how could anyone not see the awkward and inept girl that was just _this close_ to accidentally breaking someone's nose by opening a door, or getting glass all over the shiny dance floor?

But there was one man's stare that I found impossible to block out. _Him_. I knew his name was Edward, thanks to Lauren and Jessica's eavesdropping, and that he and his family came to Eclipse every Saturday…and I knew that he liked to stare at me. Every time I looked at his dark table in the very back of the club, his bright eyes were there, gazing the shit out of me. And then, almost too fast for me to catch, he would glance away, leaving my face burning. I felt more in one stare from him than a million ogles from Mike, Tyler, Eric, or Jake.

It was an absurd game he played with me. Stare, stare, stare…_look away_. Stare, stare, stare…_look away_. It was almost like he was a broken jack-in-the-box or pop-goes-the-weasel. Except instead of popping up when I wanted him too, it was the other way around.

Ever since I'd first seen him—well, all five of them, really—I'd wanted a closer look. Disgustingly and inhumanly gorgeous, the lot of them. Not that I considered myself to be a great judge of beauty, especially since I had yet to see them up close. But it was just one of those things…like seeing an ice cream cone from far away, and just knowing how good it's going to taste.

Not that I'd compared Edward to delicious, lickable ice cream, or anything.

Carefully sidestepping a chair, I made it to table four without incident. Distributing the drinks, I did the whole _"Hi, I'm Bella, and I'll be taking care of you this evening"_ bullshit. Tyler insisted that all of us say that, instead of the usual _"I'll be your waitress" _bit. I think it bothered me more than anything, just because Tyler had gone to high school with me, and had followed me around like a puppy dog. Now that he had a job where was in charge of me, he was the Lord-it-over-you type of guy.

Moving on to table six, I couldn't help but do a mental eye-roll. This particular table was made to seat three or four people max, but seven rowdy, skanky looking college girls about my age were crowded around it. "Hi, I'm Bella," blah blah blah. "Who here ordered drinks?"

A bleach blonde girl with dark red lipstick gestured to herself and the two girls on either side of her. _Sex-on-the-beach_ _indeed. What kind of drink is that, anyway? Sex on the beach doesn't even sound fun. Wouldn't sand get up __**there**__?_

Trying not to think about sex and Edward's stare (which was hitting the center of my back at the moment) at the same time, I asked "Can I get anything else for you ladies?" I smiled, tucking the tray under my arm, and reaching for the notepad tucked into my back pocket.

"Yeah, babe," an anorexic looking black girl spoke up. "Can you send some mojitos to that table over there?" she glanced, none too discreetly, at the back corner, and I followed her line of vision. "With our compliments," she added with an exaggerated wink.

He was still staring, even more intently than usual. He had the look of someone who was trying very hard to hear what we were saying…or the look of someone who had already heard us, and who was trying to understand it. I shook my head a little bit to clear my thoughts. There was no way he could have heard the girls' request; not when his table was way back there, halfway across the club from us, over the pounding music and laughter, and the general noise that comes with any place that serves booze and pays a DJ to play fuck-me music.

"Certainly," I assured the table of tittering, giggling girls. _If they titter any more, their tits are going to fall right out of their blouses. _

On my way back to the bar, I took another order, but my mind wasn't really on my job. All I could seem to think about were the slutty girls from table six, with their stupid sex-on-the-beaches, plunging necklines, rising hemlines, and the mojitos for the table in the corner.

I kept telling myself that it shouldn't bother me. People had drinks sent over to Edward and his family all the time. Besides, it's not as though I had any sort of claim on the bronze-haired, brooding man who played staring games with me. I was just a waitress, for crying out loud. I'd never even been within ten feet of him.

Every now and then, I had to shake off these possessive feelings. They didn't make much sense, but sometimes I felt as though I were in middle school, having a crush on the popular boy who was out of my reach. I was the shy, bookish girl all over again, who'd never spoken to the boy, but still felt jealous when he ended up dating one of the cheerleaders. There was no good reason for the jealousy, but it was strong enough to burn in my veins, and take hold of all my other emotions.

"Blame It" by Jamie Foxx came on, much too loud for my taste, and as I set the tray down on the bar, I met Jake's eyes. Holding a pair of gigantic earphones up to his head with one hand, he waved at me enthusiastically with the other. I returned his greeting half-heartedly, getting back to work quickly.

My relationship with Jake was a strange one. We'd been close friends as children, but in the last few years, it seemed like he was after more than just that. He'd turned into that protective, pessimistic boy, worried about me and my virtue…but not in that cute older brother sort of way. Our friendship had, unfortunately, become quite awkward. He'd even followed me from Forks to Seattle, taking the job of DJ, just to keep an eye on me. He drove all the way from La Push to Eclipse every Saturday night. Granted, Charlie didn't bug me so much about working at a nightclub since Jake had joined me, but still…

"Hey Lauren, can you take five mojitos to table fourteen? Table six is paying," I said to her over my shoulder as I grabbed two Patron beers from the fridge under the bar.

Popping the caps off, I waited for her acknowledgment, but heard nothing. Puzzled, I turned to her, and choked back a laugh.

Lauren and Mike were practically nose to nose. His mouth hung open in a smile—the kind of drooly smile you see on a really happy dog who has its head stuck out of the window of a fast car—while Lauren had her hips tilted at an angle that I assumed was meant to be provocative.

"Sure honey, I'd love to," she whispered loudly over the music, obviously ending was had been a hushed conversation.

"Guh…great!" Mike stammered, blinking rapidly. I think he was trying to wink. "Um. Just let me clock out."

"Okay," Lauren simpered, oozing false charm and a poor attempt at sexual magnetism.

As Mike scrambled to go sign out, he bumped into a confused Eric, who was just about to start his bartending shift. I watched the scene with eyebrows raised, and Lauren finally turned to me.

"Sorry, what was that, Bella? Well, it doesn't matter; you can take care of it, right? Mike and I are leaving," she gave a girlish giggle.

I tried not to laugh, but it was terribly hard to picture Lauren and Mike doing anything together. "Like…leaving as in _going out_? But you're supposed to work until—"

She turned her back on me, stalking towards the door behind the bar. "I don't care. Do you know how long it's been since my last date? You and Jess can cover for me."

I let out a chuckle, unable to help myself. "Honestly, Lauren—Mike? Mike Newton? I thought your standards were higher than that."

She sent me an angry look over her shoulder. "Fuck off, Bella. You worry about your own lack of dates, okay?"

She disappeared behind the bead curtain just as I noticed Jess at my elbow. Her eyes were sad, even though her mouth turned upwards in a smirk.

"Well, looks like we're being ditched for the douche bag," I said wryly, still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that Mike and Lauren were leaving work. Together. On a date.

"Yeah…who needs them?" Jess added, her shoulders slumping slightly, ruining the teasing tone in her voice.

Sensing her distressed aura and physical fatigue, I lightly punched her arm playfully. "What's up, Jess? You okay?"

She avoided my eyes, handing Eric a piece of paper with her drink orders. "I guess."

I knew that Jessica had sort of liked Mike at one point; but enough to be upset? "C'mon, it's only Lauren," I tried to console her as I retrieved two tall glasses and placed them on my tray next to the beers. "Nothing to get worked up over."

Shrugging, she pushed the topic aside. "What tables do you want to take?"

I glanced at Lauren's side of the club; the dark corner jumped out at me, and I considered the implications. _Am I finally going to wait on Edward's table?_

The thought of being so close to the pale, beautiful people encouraged me, and I made up my mind. "Is it cool if I take thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen?"

"Okay, tables sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen for me, then," Jess jotted down a reminder on her notepad.

"Eric, can you make me five mojitos?" I asked, hoisting my tray up carefully.

I barely heard his "Sure thing, Bella," so concentrated were my thoughts on where those mojitos would go.

The table in the corner was mine tonight.

**

* * *

A/N:** I hope you guys enjoyed part 1. =) Part 2 is on its way. I'm not sure yet if there will be a part 3, but in any case, this is going to be a very short story. Chapter 14 of Vampire Goddess is going to go out to my beta very soon, so be on the lookout for that as well. For more ANs and random stuff, check my blog at **eglantines-ramblings(dot)blogspot(dot)com**.


	2. Part 2

**The Next Contestant**

_Vampire Edward can't stay away from gorgeous human waitress Bella._

* * *

**Part 2**

**A/N:** This takes place in Seattle, and is sort of canon. The Cullens and Bella never went to Forks High together, but they are vampires, and she is a human, etc. etc. etc. The song "The Next Contestant" belongs to Nickelback, and Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer. I own nothing except for Edward's dirty thoughts/tortured mind, Bella's cute outfit, and the nightclub Eclipse. Hugs and kisses to my beta, Misty!

* * *

**EPOV**

"_Is that your hand on my girlfriend?__  
__Is that your hand?__  
__I wish you'd do it again;__  
__I'll watch you leave here limping.__  
__I wish you'd do it again;__  
__I'll watch you leave here limping.__  
__There goes the next contestant."_

She kept me anchored. If it weren't for the fact that I wanted to stay and watch her, observe her, learn something new about her, then I would have left. I would have followed the punk rocker asshole with the spiked red hair out into the parking lot not thirty seconds ago. He'd left with his girlfriend, but his thoughts were all Bella. He'd undressed her in his mind, put his hands all over her, tied her up, gagged her, and done the sort of things a gentleman would never dream of doing. Not that my reaction was all that gentlemanly, either. I'd let myself imagine for a moment that I'd stalked him to his car, then leapt out from the dark, faster than he or his girlfriend could sense, and snapped his neck with a simple twist of my hands.

But I'd managed to resist cold-blooded murder for what seemed to be the millionth time since I'd started watching Bella. Although it was mostly because I wanted to be near her, there was another reason as well. I didn't want to lapse back into the ways that had led me astray from Carlisle so many years ago. Having justified and carried out those actions in the past, I knew what it would feel like if I did so again. Disappointment, horror, self-loathing. I didn't want any of those emotions flooding my psyche, especially now that Bella was in my world.

Pushing my remnant anger about the dominant-minded red-haired dick out of my mind, I listened in on what was happening across the club. Lauren the Slut and Mike the Sleaze had been murmuring to each other a moment ago, agreeing that Lauren would skip out on work early so that they could go out. The conversation had amused me to no end, both of their thought processes hilarious. Neither was attracted to the other, but so anxious were they for sexual gratification that they would settle for the person they liked the least. I'd been drinking in Bella's reaction to the situation, until I was distracted by the punk's mental assault; pictures of her, bound and helpless, her glistening pus—_focus!_

"What tables do you want to take?" Jessica was asking Bella.

Bella glanced at our table, her eyes lingering on me. Her weak human eyes wouldn't be able to see my intense gaze from so far across the club, with the low flashing lights, and yet she stared…she stared and hesitated.

"Is it cool if I take thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen?" she finally answered.

Fourteen. That was _our_ table.

Jessica responded, but I didn't hear. My mind was buzzing, and I struggled to concentrate.

"Eric, can you make me five mojitos?" Bella asked the young man who had replaced Mike as bartender.

Was she really going to bring the mojitos here? Naturally, I'd overheard the thoughts and conversation from table six regarding _'that fucking hot stud and his friends—they __**have**__ to be models…maybe Chanel and Hugo Boss?'_ as the girl with too much lipstick had so nicely put it. But Mike's leap at Lauren had changed things for the evening, certainly. This would be the first time that Bella would wait on us, let alone be remotely close to our corner, not counting our very first visit to Eclipse.

I watched her as she moved around the club, distributing drinks and taking orders as she waited for Eric to finish the mojitos. She was glancing at our corner much more than usual, and I wished yet again that I could read her mind. Was she apprehensive? Was she excited? Did she _really_ want to come over here?

The only emotion bouncing off of Jasper at the moment was curiosity, and I knew by his thoughts that it was solely from Bella. All consuming, flat out, killing-the-cat curiosity. I gritted my teeth, my own jumble of emotions distracting me. I felt Jasper push my mess right back at me; he was trying to focus on her curiosity, trying to figure her out.

"Why is she dying to come over here?" Alice muttered to herself in a low tone, having overheard everything, and having picked up on Jasper's vibe. She glanced at me, her thoughts going a million miles an hour.

I tried to block her from my mind, tried to make sense of what could happen. _Will Bella's scent be too overwhelming for me if she's that close? What if I attack the woman I love?_

_Whoa! Hold your horses, Edward!_ Jasper's thoughts shouted at me as he turned in my direction, gently pushing Alice off of his lap and into the vacant chair next to him. For a split second, I wasn't sure what he was going on about, but then I saw my face as it had been a moment ago reflected in his mind, and felt my own burst of powerful protectiveness and love as he had received it from me. _You __**love**__ her?_

I sat quietly as Alice looked back and forth between us, trying to break into our silent conversation. I sat, mute and frozen. _Do I love her? Is it possible to love a girl I've never spoken to?_

My eyes wandered back to Bella, who was moving slowly back to the bar. As she passed a table where two bulky men sat guzzling the beers she had dropped off not two minutes ago, their lusty words assaulted my mental barrier. Their dirty, desirous, and morally unrestrained thoughts were like mud streaks across a pristinely clean glass window, and I couldn't restrain the terribly human reaction of a shudder.

Then I knew. _Yes_. Yes, it was possible to love her, despite our lack of proximity. Despite our differences, it was right there, honestly expressed in Jasper's empathy: deep devotion, unconditional love, the desire to protect my mate.

Except that she _wasn't _my mate, and never could be. Staggered and mystified by my own feelings, I was almost scared. When had my fascination and obsession for the clumsy, adorable waitress turned into something so intense? _No, it must be a mistake…I __**love**__ her?_

Giving up on getting any words out of me, Alice's face became composed and peaceful as she tried to look into the future. I saw flashes from her foresight about the remainder of the night, but most of it was hazy and strange; apparently, no one's decisions were set in stone.

Bella gave Eric her slip of paper with new orders, and was carefully balancing the tray of mojitos just as Emmett and Rosalie came back from the dance floor. Rose was humming along with the current song, something that I vaguely recognized as a remix of Kaci Battaglia's "Crazy Possessive," while Emmett was grinning from ear to ear. "What did we miss?" he asked as they took their seats. "Is Eddie still giving us that silent shit?"

I huffed under my breath, and stared down at the table. "She's coming over here," I whispered, my mix of awe and frustration making itself known in my tone.

"What?" Rose perked up, her eyes darting to Bella, who was already half-way to us. "No way…"

"Yes way!" Alice said excitedly. "But I can't see what's going to happen. It's very irritating." She shot me a side look. _Can't you just make up your mind?_

Ten steps. Five steps. _Oh my God…_ My family shut up for the time being, but their thoughts were all basically the same. I tried to compose myself, but she was already here, and I held my breath, refusing to let her freesia blood, strawberry shampoo, and sweet pea lotion scents attack my sanity.

Her heart was pounding viciously, thick and wet, nervous and panicky. Her hands were shaking slightly, but apart from that, her outward appearance seemed rather unruffled. Her face, usually an open book, betrayed nothing except for anticipation; her bottom lip was caught between her teeth, and a light blush crept over her cheeks. She was gorgeous.

Bella opened her mouth to speak, and all I could do was stare. She made the mistake of looking straight at me, and, caught in my gaze, turned the most interesting shade of tomato juice red. Her words stuck in her throat, and as her brown eyes laced with mine, a terribly awkward silence surrounded the six of us.

My eyes ravaged her face, loving the fact that she was so incredibly close to me. Her eyelashes were long, and far darker than her hair and eyebrows. They were still as she gazed at me, but fluttered when Emmett coughed loudly, interrupting our staring match.

"Those for us, honey?" he asked kindly; that is, as kindly as is possible for Emmett. It sort of came out as a laughing bark, but I knew he meant well.

Jarred out of her momentary daze, Bella turned even redder, her pulse speeding up with her embarrassment. "Yes, I'm sorry…" she finally spoke, distributing the drinks. "Um…th—these are from table six," she stammered. It wasn't lost on me that she was so flustered that she forgot to introduce herself and give her mandatory speech.

"Thanks darlin'," Jasper said as he and Alice smiled at her. Rose's skeptical mood bombarded my love-struck study of Bella's visage. _What the hell?_ her mental tone was bitter. _'Honey'? 'Darling'? _I tore my eyes away from our enchantingly self-conscious waitress, and saw that my sister's nose was wrinkled, as though she'd smelled something disgusting.

My eyes were automatically drawn back to Bella, as though by a magnet. Her breathing was shallow, growing more erratic by the second; when she felt my gaze on her, her head ducked down a little, and it was more than obvious that she was trying very hard not to look at me again. "If I can get anything else, just let me know," her voice was softer, and she held the tray in front of her, almost in a defensive gesture. And yet, she wasn't exactly _scared_, like most normal humans would have been at this propinquity.

"Hold on a second," Emmett held a hand up, anticipating that she was getting ready to walk away. _Enjoy the view, Eddie. You can thank me later for buying you some time_. His thoughts were cocky. "Boys," he turned to me and Jasper, "I think it's time we resume our bet."

"Resume?" Jasper laughed. "It's only been 20 minutes since your last drink. I beat your ass. Just accept it, Em."

"Not a chance, Jazz. Can you tell us the specials tonight?" he asked Bella, winking slyly.

I bit back a cough as Bella started going through the bar's specialty offers. As if Emmett didn't have the list memorized. Psh. There was no way Bella could have known that, however, and she recited the list dutifully, only stammering a little. My eyes fixated on her lips, watching them move.

_Say something!_ Alice screamed at me in her head. "Shut up," I murmured, too fast and too low for Bella to hear. _No! This is getting ridiculous. It wouldn't hurt you to say something. She likes you too, you know. _

I shook my head infinitesimally, but Bella caught the movement, tripping over her last words of "Blue Kamikaze, V—Vampire's Kiss with Cinzano Dry Vermouth, and the San Francisco Cock—cocktail…er…with Extra Dry Vermouth."

She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye as Emmett said, "Well, why don't you bring me a Brandy Sour, neat. Jazz?"

"If you insist…I'll try that Blue Kamikaze," he smirked, and Alice rubbed his leg under the table.

"That's my boy," she said in a low undertone.

"Eddie?" Emmett prompted. I heard him sling his arm over the back of Rose's chair, but my eyes were busy watching Bella scrawl the drinks down on her notepad, the tray tucked under her arm.

"Disaronno.," I blurted out the first thing that came to mind, and her eyes snapped up to mine.

The blush which had been slowly dissipating since her close call with the word _cocktail_ returned full force, and I finally let myself inhale.

_Oh. My. God._ I'd forgotten how intoxicatingly good she smelled up close. I closed my eyes in the pure ecstasy of it, barely noticing that I had no desire to drink her blood: only to inhale her natural perfume. The thought pinpricked the back of my mind, and a part of me knew that it was relevant, but I was dominated by her aroma.

"Neat or on the rocks?" Bella's soft question made my eyes pop open. She was focusing on the notepad intently.

"On the rocks," I answered, not really caring. Emmett would probably drink it anyway.

_Aw, man, on the rocks? You know I hate ice! Frozen water…it's so unnatural._ I bit back a smile; Emmett's thoughts were rather predictable.

"Okay, I'll get those right out for you," Bella put her notepad in her back pocket, and clipped the pen to the hem of her shirt. "Enjoy the mojitos," she glanced at me.

Emmett thanked her, but her eyes still caressed my face. For a split second, I saw the picture of us reflected in Alice's mind. Me sitting, her standing: the pair of us making silly goo-goo eyes at each other.

_Shit. Since when do I use phrases like "goo-goo eyes"? _

But then she was gone. She'd turned and gone, and I stared at her ass as she walked back to place our drink orders.

"Mm, Eddie's got it _bad_," Emmett cooed in a sing-song voice.

"You don't know the half of it," Alice squealed, turning in her chair. "If I interpreted the emotions Jazz was radiating a minute ago correctly, our boy is in love."

"That's impossible," I countered, trying to ignore the revelation I'd had.

Jasper leaned forward. "I don't think so. You're just…intimidated by your own feelings," he said as he tried to analyze me.

I rolled my eyes, getting ready for what I knew was coming. "But…she's _human_." Rosalie. Of course. "He can't love her. It's just…wrong."

"Wait!" Alice's face froze, and she stared at me as the unexpected vision played out in her head. I knew that it would be completed only seconds later, and I jumped up out of my chair, not even waiting to see the rest. Everything was shut out of my mind, except for the desperate need to rescue Bella from something that hadn't even happened yet.

Adrenaline—or at least, my vampiric equivalent—coursed through me. A man who had stepped into the club just a few moments before Bella had arrived, had made a few decisions. Wrong decisions. Decisions that were going to get him killed.

"Edward!"

The warnings of my siblings deflected right off of me, both the verbal and thought-borne ones. I'd never understood the saying 'seeing red' until now, and it felt as though every muscle in my body was tugging me towards the bar, where Bella was fetching drinks, blood still pooling in her cheeks from her first encounter with us. She was completely unaware of the blond man who was waiting for just the right opportunity for everyone to be distracted so that he could duck behind the bar, grab Bella, and drag her out the back way.

My mind told me that it was ridiculous for me to go after her. I shouldn't risk being seen; I shouldn't risk the path between our table and the bar, especially because the bright disco-reminiscent lights might illuminate my sparkling skin. _But if I dart around and go the long way, I could make it in…1.59 seconds. No one will see…_

_Don't. Don't do it_, the rational part of me said in a deep, warning tone.

_Go. Go now_, the part of me that thought with my heart instead of my head prodded me, sticking knives into my gut and heart and mind, and even into the very _soul_ I didn't believe I'd had until right now.

I moved as fast as the wind, faster than any human eye could follow. I vaguely felt and heard snippets of Alice's fear, Jasper's concern, Emmett's confusion, and Rose's disdain, but all those were quickly pushed aside by my need to get to Bella. To rescue this accident prone, human girl, who meant more to me than anything had...ever. And in the two minutes when she'd actually stood in front of me, all I had done was gawk at her, and say the four stupidest, shittiest words a man could say: _Disaronno…on the rocks. _And if I didn't hurry, I might never get to say the four words that actually mattered. _Bella, I love you_.

I came to a screeching halt in the shadows by the door. The bar was only a few steps away, but it wouldn't do very well for me to appear out of nowhere, and slug the guy, would it? I scanned his thoughts swiftly, and decided it didn't matter. I had to do something before he did.

A split second before I was about to move, I felt a soft thump against my side, and froze.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!"

A girl with long, lank black hair stared up at me in morbid fascination, her thoughts breaking through the barrier that my need to save Bella had constructed around my currently fragile and preoccupied mind. _Holy shit, this must be my lucky day. He's gorgeous! What I wouldn't give for one night with __**his**__ cock...who'd have known I would literally bump into such a stud, tonight of all nights. _

"It's all right," I mumbled, trying to turn away. She turned with me, following me, and I clenched my jaw, looking at her with as much disdain as I could muster. It must have worked, because her mind was wiped clean of every thought save _holy fucking hell!_ and a sudden, inexplicable need to get as far away from me as was humanly possible.

She disappeared into the shadows, as I looked back at the bar. But my dead heart sunk into my stomach, and rose up into my throat at the same time. My gut twisted in a way it hadn't since I was human, and I suddenly felt as though it was time to purge my system of the alcohol that I'd drunk with my brothers, whether I liked it or not.

_I'm too late_.

The blond man was gone. Bella was gone. How could I have missed it? I hadn't been _that_ distracted by the girl who'd run into me.

Jogging as slowly as I dared, I dodged the people in my way. My mind raced, although my body moved at a heart-wrenchingly sluggish human pace. Following Bella's scent, I snuck through the back door when no one was watching; the hanging beads hardly even made a sound. If it hadn't been for the fact that I was currently occupied with saving my girl from the dick-headed bastard, it would have been something to brag to Emmett about. Emmett's bulk never would have made it past the bar, unless the surrounding humans happened to be so intoxicated that they couldn't tell left from right.

The hallway was dark, and I passed the offices and employee lounge in less than a second. Just before pushing through the door that led to the back parking lot, my ears were assaulted by the sounds of struggle and pain. Low, mocking laughter accompanied it.

My mind buzzed with anger, and I shoved the door aside. It crashed open, banging against the wall. Spotting them immediately, my silent heart ached painfully in my hollow chest. A rubber band ten times stronger than steel seemed to be wrapped around it, constricting, binding, and almost forcing it to beat again from sheer terror and love and all the crazy, fucked up emotions running around inside me.

The blond man—I gathered that his name was James from his thoughts…what sort of idiot uses his own name when thinking about himself?—was pushing Bella against the door of a car. The frantic sobs that started in her chest were being obstructed by his hand over her mouth. She was kicking and pushing against him, writhing and squirming to the best of her ability, breathing furiously through her nose. Her eyes were wild and scared.

My own breath hitched in my lungs, but I only hesitated for approximately 2.3 seconds before I could make my body move again.

"_Each time she bats an eyelash__  
__Somebody's grabbing her ass.__  
__Everyone keeps coming on to her.__  
__This time somebody's getting hurt:_

_Here comes the next contestant."

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_**A/N:** One more chapter coming up, and that'll be it for this little story. I hope you're enjoying it! Reviews are love. =) For more information about this, and my other stories, check out my blog at **eglantines-ramblings(dot)blogspot(dot)com**.


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